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risk-classification

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Classifies agent tasks into 4 risk tiers (GREEN/YELLOW/RED/CRITICAL). Use when assessing action reversibility before committing to an approach.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/athola/claude-night-market/blob/HEAD/plugins/leyline/skills/risk-classification/SKILL.md

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Table of Contents

Risk Classification

Overview

Provides inline risk classification for agent tasks using a 4-tier model (GREEN/YELLOW/RED/CRITICAL). Uses fast heuristic file-pattern matching for low-risk tiers and delegates to Skill(attune:war-room-checkpoint) for high-risk tiers requiring full reversibility scoring.

When To Use

  • Assessing risk of tasks before agent assignment
  • Determining verification requirements for task completion
  • Deciding parallel execution safety between tasks
  • Adding risk markers to task checklists

When NOT To Use

  • Single-file trivial changes (assume GREEN)
  • Strategic architecture decisions (use full Skill(attune:war-room) instead)
  • Non-code tasks (documentation-only, configuration comments)

4-Tier Risk Model

TierColorScopeExampleVerification
GREENSafeSingle file, trivial revertTest files, docs, utilsNone required
YELLOWCautionModule-level, user-visibleComponents, routes, viewsConflict check and test pass
REDDangerCross-module, security/dataMigrations, auth, database schemaWar-room RS, full test, and review
CRITICALStopIrreversible, regulatedData deletion, production deployWar-room RS and human approval

Hybrid Routing

Task received
    |
    v
Heuristic classifier (file patterns)
    |
    ├── GREEN/YELLOW → Apply tier, continue
    |
    └── RED/CRITICAL → Invoke Skill(attune:war-room-checkpoint)
                        for reversibility scoring (RS)
                        |
                        └── RS confirms or adjusts tier

Why hybrid: GREEN/YELLOW classification is fast and deterministic (file pattern matching). RED/CRITICAL tasks warrant the overhead of full reversibility analysis because the cost of getting them wrong is high.

Task Metadata Extension

Add risk tier to task metadata for downstream consumption:

{
  "id": "5",
  "subject": "Add user authentication",
  "metadata": {
    "risk_tier": "YELLOW",
    "risk_reason": "Modifies src/components/LoginForm.tsx (user-visible component)",
    "classified_at": "2026-02-07T22:00:00Z"
  }
}

Tasks without risk_tier metadata default to GREEN (backward compatible).

Readiness Levels

The 4-tier Readiness Levels system provides clear risk classification with required controls per tier:

LevelNameWhenRequired Controls
0RoutineLow blast radius, easy rollbackBasic validation, rollback step
1WatchUser-visible changesReview, negative test, rollback note
2ElevatedSecurity/compliance/dataAdversarial review, risk checklist
3CriticalIrreversible, regulatedHuman confirmation, two-step verification

See modules/readiness-levels.md for full level definitions, selection decision tree, and integration guidance.

Graduated Autonomy

Risk classification sets how carefully a change is verified. Automation tiers set how autonomously the agent acts and when it must hand control back. Each risk tier carries a default automation tier (GREEN to A3 autonomous, CRITICAL to A0 manual), and a pre-licensed downgrade trigger drops the agent one tier on repeated failure, confidence loss, a stakes spike, or repo-state mismatch rather than re-prompting at the same level. See modules/automation-tiers.md for the tier table and the downgrade trigger, and imbue:assisted-mastery for the explain/produce mode selection that reads from it.

Module Reference

  • tier-definitions.md: Detailed tier criteria, boundaries, and override mechanism
  • heuristic-classifier.md: File-pattern rules for automated classification
  • verification-gates.md: Per-tier verification requirements and parallel safety matrix
  • readiness-levels.md: 4-tier risk system with required controls per level
  • automation-tiers.md: Per-tier autonomy defaults and the downgrade trigger

Integration Pattern

# In your skill's frontmatter
dependencies: [leyline:risk-classification]

For Task Generators

Append [R:TIER] marker to task format:

- [ ] T012 [P] [US1] [R:YELLOW] Create LoginForm component in src/components/LoginForm.tsx

For Orchestrators

Check risk tier before task assignment:

if task.risk_tier in ["RED", "CRITICAL"]:
    invoke Skill(attune:war-room-checkpoint) for RS scoring
    if CRITICAL: require human approval before proceeding

Exit Criteria

  • Every task has a risk tier assigned (explicit or default GREEN)
  • RED/CRITICAL tasks have war-room-checkpoint RS scores
  • Verification gates passed for the assigned tier
  • No parallel execution of prohibited tier combinations
  • Each task carries an automation tier; downgrades are recorded with a reason when a trigger fires